To bring it around to the example of the Texans, they learned full well the difficulty of scheduling this year: the Texans faced nine Quality Opponents this year, more than any other team in the AFC. Obviously, playing the Titans and Colts four times is quite a challenge. But Houston also faced Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Miami, Minnesota and Chicago. That's a tough, tough slate to overcome. The Texans were 3-6 in these nine games."

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What I found most interesting, besides the part where we make everyone look like Joe Montana flinging the pigskin.

The big team-wide issue, however, makes we wonder about Gary Kubiak himself. We measure the offensive and defensive efficiency of each team with our Scoreability and Bendability Indices. The key to these stats is that they don't measure individual units in a vacuum because, quite frankly, individual units (offense, defense, special teams) don't play in a vacuum. The success of one is impacted by the success of the other.

So our indices take all these team-wide factors into consideration, and the Texans here don't measure up particularly well. The Texans were 25th in our Scoreability Index and 27th in our Bendability Index in 2008.

Generally, what you find when teams fare poorly in this efficiency categories, is that they have some combination of the following: a lot of penalties, a bad turnover differential, poor red zone offense and/or defense and poor special teams. I bet if you look at Houston this past year, they struggled in most of these areas. In other words, one unit often made life difficult for the other this year.

[Steph note: The Texans have bad turnover differential, poor red zone offense and defense, average special teams and usually aren't overly penalized.]

And that spells trouble and that's often a reflection of poor fundamentals and/or poor coaching. The team needs to tighten up its act and play together better to become a contender

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Of course, y'all know I'm the lone "fire Kubiak" campaigner, but that sums up a lot of what's at issue.

Interesting indexes/ways of measuring football success on Cold Hard Facts.

Of course, y'all know I'm the lone "fire Kubiak" campaigner, but that sums up a lot of what's at issue.

Interesting indexes/ways of measuring football success on Cold Hard Facts.

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Have you ever seen Kubiak give a speech in person?

The reason I ask is that I found that people who have seen him speak in person tend to be bigger fans than those who watch a thump the podium presser.

His players from most reports really seem to like and respect him, and if you see him speak in person, you can see why. He isn't the most smooth or slick speaker in the world, but he comes across as a genuine guy who would like nothing more than bringing a Super Bowl trophy to his home town. His desire might not be enough, but you have to acknowledge some progress with this team.

People who hear him speak want to run through a brick wall for him. I saw his first public speech to a large group. It was the draft luncheon after the Texans picked Mario. The crowd was packed, most of those people thought when they bought the tickets that they were going to be hearing about Reggie Bush.

He was able to get that group of people, most of them shocked or mad about the Mario choice, on his side, not being able to wait for the season to begin.

It's something for someone in the coaching bidness to have never been fired. An accomplishment of a sort. Bronco fans still love Kubiak, which a lot of fans can't say about their offensive coordinators or ex-players.

The reason I ask is that I found that people who have seen him speak in person tend to be bigger fans than those who watch a thump the podium presser.

His players from most reports really seem to like and respect him, and if you see him speak in person, you can see why. He isn't the most smooth or slick speaker in the world, but he comes across as a genuine guy who would like nothing more than bringing a Super Bowl trophy to his home town. His desire might not be enough, but you have to acknowledge some progress with this team.

People who hear him speak want to run through a brick wall for him. I saw his first public speech to a large group. It was the draft luncheon after the Texans picked Mario. The crowd was packed, most of those people thought when they bought the tickets that they were going to be hearing about Reggie Bush.

He was able to get that group of people, most of them shocked or mad about the Mario choice, on his side, not being able to wait for the season to begin.

It's something for someone in the coaching bidness to have never been fired. An accomplishment of a sort. Bronco fans still love Kubiak, which a lot of fans can't say about their offensive coordinators or ex-players.

The reason I ask is that I found that people who have seen him speak in person tend to be bigger fans than those who watch a thump the podium presser.

His players from most reports really seem to like and respect him, and if you see him speak in person, you can see why. He isn't the most smooth or slick speaker in the world, but he comes across as a genuine guy who would like nothing more than bringing a Super Bowl trophy to his home town. His desire might not be enough, but you have to acknowledge some progress with this team.

People who hear him speak want to run through a brick wall for him. I saw his first public speech to a large group. It was the draft luncheon after the Texans picked Mario. The crowd was packed, most of those people thought when they bought the tickets that they were going to be hearing about Reggie Bush.

He was able to get that group of people, most of them shocked or mad about the Mario choice, on his side, not being able to wait for the season to begin.

It's something for someone in the coaching bidness to have never been fired. An accomplishment of a sort. Bronco fans still love Kubiak, which a lot of fans can't say about their offensive coordinators or ex-players.

Kubiak might be a great GUY. But a great HEAD COACH? My jury is still out on that one. He's made plenty of bone-headed decisions during games that have nothing to do with how affable he is.

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I can say that the jury is still out on how Kubiak will be as a head coach. His team seems to rally behind him, which isn't a bad thing. Having the jury out on something is different than suggesting he needs to be canned.

For the work I do on FanHouse, we have a NFL googlegroup where we call stories. First one to call a story gets it. And we also joke and complain in the thread.

It is interesting to hear from fans of other NFL franchises. Everyone seems to beyotch about their coach's clock management and various boneheaded decisions.

I can say that the jury is still out on how Kubiak will be as a head coach. His team seems to rally behind him, which isn't a bad thing. Having the jury out on something is different than suggesting he needs to be canned.

For the work I do on FanHouse, we have a NFL googlegroup where we call stories. First one to call a story gets it. And we also joke and complain in the thread.

It is interesting to hear from fans of other NFL franchises. Everyone seems to beyotch about their coach's clock management and various boneheaded decisions.

Going to the "Have you ever..." card? Come on. A lot of us don't have the time to go to the luncheons or other Texans events where Kubiak speaks. It's tough enough to make time to watch the team play on Sunday, be it at Reliant or on the tube. And it's still the games that count.

Maybe the team would run through a wall for Kubiak. But if that wall happens to be in the red zone, my money is on the wall. And I've seen the podium thumping Kubiak too many times to completely dismiss the possibility of that side of Gary's persona never showing itself in front of the team.

Good guy? Yes. Loves our city? Absolutely. Has helped this franchise through a very difficult transition period? You betcha. Good head coach? Um...not yet. The cold, hard football fact that interests me is that Gary Kubiak must lead the 2009 Houston Texans into the NFL playoffs. I don't see him talking his way out of that.

Going to the "Have you ever..." card? Come on. A lot of us don't have the time to go to the luncheons or other Texans events where Kubiak speaks. It's tough enough to make time to watch the team play on Sunday, be it at Reliant or on the tube. And it's still the games that count.

Maybe the team would run through a wall for Kubiak. But if that wall happens to be in the red zone, my money is on the wall. And I've seen the podium thumping Kubiak too many times to completely dismiss the possibility of that side of Gary's persona never showing itself in front of the team.

Good guy? Yes. Loves our city? Absolutely. Has helped this franchise through a very difficult transition period? You betcha. Good head coach? Um...not yet. The cold, hard football fact that interests me is that Gary Kubiak must lead the 2009 Houston Texans into the NFL playoffs. I don't see him talking his way out of that.

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If the team goes 10-6 or 11-5 next year, but still doesn't make the playoffs, like the Patriots did this year, he'll talk his way out of it just fine.